"We Will Not Forget": Violence and Trauma through Children's Eyes in Graphic Novels Authored by Middle Eastern Women : Baddawi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, and A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return

Details

Supervisors

Bragard, Véronique

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en langues et lettres modernes, orientation générale, à finalité didactique

Abstract

Nowadays, graphic novels take up increasingly more space in our bookstores and are used by many artists from underprivileged regions of the world to convey the realities of their lives. Every day, we are presented with images of wars and conflicts occurring in the Middle East, accompanied by a narrative that portrays Middle Easterners as dangerous “Others”. Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, and Zeina Abirached’s A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return challenge this narrative through various techniques in their graphic novels. Each of these black-and-white works depicts the lives of child characters in conflict-affected regions—Palestine, Iran, and Lebanon—facing the horrors of violence. These graphic novels not only expose the harsh realities of war but also strive to amplify the voices of individuals caught in conflict who are often silenced. This study investigates the representation of violence and trauma in these works, focusing on how the choice of child characters, monochrome colors, and child-like graphiation affects readers’ perception of trauma and violence, as well as the overall emotional connections they create. Through a comparative analysis, we seek to uncover the distinct and shared ways these graphic novels contribute to the discourse on representing violence and trauma. Our research is divided into three parts: the first presents a theoretical framework that introduces the concepts of trauma and violence, along with the emergence and influence of women in the comics industry. The second chapter analyzes the choice of child protagonists and how their portrayals foster empathy, humanize the “Other”, and play the role of informants. The final part discusses the use of black and white and its effect on the reading experience. Ultimately, these graphic novels challenge Orientalist perspectives and affirm the humanization of the East.